Multiple coal auger



Sept. 6, 1960 w. D. CAROTHERS v MULTIPLE COAL AUGER 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 11. 1958 INVENTOR. WILLIAM D. 6420711525 Sept. 6, 1960 w. D. CAROTHERS 2,951,693

MULTIPLE COAL AUGER Filed March 11, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TOR. WILL 1AM D. CAEO Tl- E25 W. D. CAROTHERS MULTIPLE COAL AUGER Sept. 6, 1960 4 Sheets- -Sheet 3 Filed March 11, 1958 'INVENTORQ WILL/AM D. CAEOTHEES 7 3 8 %v fl w w a 8 7 WV. .7? 5 M M a u 4 a My r 6 9 a p 6, 1960 w. D. CAROTHERS 2,951,693

MULTIPLE COAL AUGER Filed March 11, 1958 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig. 7 36 IN V EN TOR. W/u. /A MD. CAeo mazs United States Patent MULTIPLE COAL AUGER Ohio Filed Mar. 11, 1958, Ser. No. 720,719

13 Claims. (Cl. 262-26) This invention relates generally to coal angers and more particularly to multiple coal angers that mine the whole of the coal face defined by the outlined path of their cutters.

Coal angering machines operated by internal combustion engines have been successful for mining coal by punching holes into the coal veins from the side of the hill or the high wall of a strip mine. These machines are successful in removing a high percentage of the outcroppin'g coal where it is not expedient to deep mine so close to the hill face or the overburden is too costly to remove. In some instances it is more practical and economical to mine the coal seam by angers or mining machines from outside of the hill with no intention of stripping or deep mining. This depends upon the size of the vein and the character of the coal and the nature of the overburden and terrain. Mining machines with multiple cutters and single coal angers have penetrated to a depth of approximately two hundred feet. The unattended mining machine having multiple trailing conveyor sections is too costly for this character of work. The single anger as well as the unattended mining machine is difficult to control and guide at these depths. These disadvantages can be overcome by the dual or multiple angering machine as the machine is not too costly over the single auger and may be more readily guided at greater depths. The cost and expense of the multiple angering machine is far less than the unattended mining machine and in case of a cave in the loss of the angering equipment is much less than that of the unattended mining machine and its conveyor.

Another object and advantage of the multiple augering machine comprising this invention is the provision of right and left hand angers on the opposite sides of the cut which rotate in opposite directions in moving the coal away from the center of the cut as it conveys the coal rearwardly. This permits the center of the cut to be free of coal and thus distribute the coal for more uniform distribution of conveying load.

Another object is the provision of a multiple auger having right and left hand angers that overlap each other for their full length and rotate in opposite directions for conveying coal rearwardly and are mounted to have a limited swiveling action.

Another object is the provision of a multiple auger machine having right and left angering lines that rotate in opposite directions and extend at the outer sides of the cut and are driven from a common source of power being geared together at the machine and at their outer endsto equalize the driving and conveying power at both ends of the angers.

Another object is the provision of a multiple angering machine having spaced angering lines each with their own cutters and the bearings of which are tied together at the machine and at the cutters and are each supplied with fluid power pushers to feed the cutters and angers into the coal which fluid pushers are balanced to distribute ice the load between the cutters and maintain uniform cutting as the multiple cutters progress and which fluid pushers may be controlled to guide the cutters as they mine.

Another object is the provision of two angering machines flexibly connected to each other to permit the first machine to mine the coal as the second machine retrieves the angers in time for use by the first machine. Thus the holes in the hill function as the storage for the angers and when the machines are duplicates they can progress left or right with the leading machine mining. Both machines are made free when tramming to the next angering location necessitating the retriever to remove the cutting head before the miner finishes angering.

Another object is the provision of a flexible storage device between the miner and the retriever machines to enable the transfer of the angering equipment from one to the other.

Another object is the provision for steering a multiple angering machine by advancing one auger string ahead of another by means of a fluid pressure control circuit comprising a part of this invention.

The right and left hand auger strings connected to the cutting heads provide resultant reacting forces set up by their opposed torque and balance each other. Thus no other means of guiding the heads is required in a horizontal plane unless it is intended to deviate the hole laterally. On all single head and two head angers to date, the angers and head or heads twist the hole either right or left depending upon the direction of the flighting. This results in holes bearing to the right in single units with the right hand flight going down and left hand flight going up. Using twin angers, both with flights of the same hand, produces the same tendency to twist the hole in opposite directions.

Other objects and advantages of this invention appear hereinafter in the following description and claims.

The accompanying drawings show for the purpose of exemplification, without limiting the invention or claims thereto, certain practical embodiments of the invention wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a multiple angering mining or retrieving machine.

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view in front elevation of the multiple anger of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 55 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the multiple auger miner and retrieving machines with the flexible storage rack therebetween. v

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the parallelogram arrangement of the auger drive.

Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view of the fluid pressure feeding and guiding system for controlling the operation of the multiple angering miner.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawings the multiple augering machine shown is illustrated with only two angers in place of four or more to simplify thisdisclosure and this machine may be the miner or theretriever as they are preferably identical machines. The frame 1 of the machines is made of the longitudinal members 2, 3," 4 and 5 which are tied together by the transverse channel members 6 directly connected to the bottoms of each longitudinal member. Gusset plates 7 also connect the longitudinal members with the transverse channels 6. The upper edges of these gusset plates 7 are rounded to receive their respective semicylindrical belly plates '8 and 10. These arcuate belly plates extend from one Patented Sept. 6,, 1960 end of the longitudinal members to the other and are provided with the openings 11 to receive and pass coal from the augers to the conveyor 12 that passes transversely under the machine and to the outer side where itelevates the coal for discharge at the end 13 to another conveyor that loads the coal to a hopper or directly to a truck or other mode of transportation. When twomachines are employed as a miner and a retriever and are flexibly connected to each other, the conveyors 12 extend with their discharge ends 13 in opposite directions sothat they may both load coal, one while mining, the other while receiving the cleanup when withdrawing the auger sections when retrieving the same.

Each of the mining machines have a pair of transverse skids 14 suspended on the underside of the frame 1 which carries rollers .15 to support the weight of the frame directly on the top surface of the skids 14 which extend below the transverse channels 6. By controlling the double acting fluid pistons 16 independently the frame 1 may be moved laterally or even turned around to slide the skids 14 back and forth free of the ground to preset them. A selected pair or all of the fluid actuated lifting jacks 17 may raise the frame off the ground so that the skids 14 are free and suspended under the frame. When mining or retrieving, the frame 1 of the machine is preferably supported by the elevating jacks 17. This structure permits the machine to be leveled when the ground is not and provides a good toe hold against which the reaction forces are based to feed the augers into the coal. The fluid controls for the complete operation of each machine is indicated by the levers at 18.

A motor platform 20 is mounted on the rear of the frame 1 and this platform is secured to the frame 1 thus tying the top together in a manner similar to the transverse channels 6 .on the bottom. The frame 20 carries the motor 21 which is preferably centered over the frame 1 and is provided at its forward end with the usual transmission and gear reduction units 22. The main drive extending from these units in the form of a bearing member 23 supporting one end of a nonround drive shaft or kelly bar 24, the other end of which is journaled in the bearing 25 carried on top of the guide shell 26 mounted on the front of the frame 1.

An independent motor 27 is mounted on the right side of the main motor 21, and is connected to drive the fluid pump 28 and reservoir 30 which is preferably a hydraulic pump to actuate the several fluid jacks and other hydraulic servomotors used in conjunction with the operation of this mining machine. On the other side of the motor 21 the fuel tanks 31 are mounted on the platform 20 to balance the weight of the motor 27.

The right side of each machine is provided with a boom hoist 32 mounted on a vertical standard 33 that may rotate to swing the load suspended from the boom. Three fluid motors, one of which is shown at 34 are provided to operate the boom hoist for placing and removing the right and left hand auger sections 35 and 36 respectively and doing other jobs around the machine. Each auger section has nonround ends, one end is preferably formed in a pin and the other a socket. To avoid getting the left hand augers in the right hand positions, the sockets of one string may be made too large for the pins in the other string or one may be square in cross section and the other trihedral or hexagonal. The right hand auger screw 35 must turn clockwise or screw into the coal to draw it back out of the hole and the coal rides on the outer lower surface of the hole. Conversely the left hand screw rotates counterclockwise to move the coal to the outer lower side of its hole. Thus, the left and right hand auger sections draw the coal away from each other and convey it rearwardly to the transfer conveyor 12.

The auger sections are made in units, the length of which are selected by reason of. the available distance between the retracted drive crosshead 37 and the forward cross head 38 in guide 26 at the front of the machine. The couplings between the ends of the auger sections and these crossheads may be of diflerent type than that between adjacent auger sections which are preferably streamlined and are unobvious.

The drive crosshead 37 is a heavy gearbox structure which as shown in Figs. 1 and 5 is supported on a center post 39 having inturned flanges 40 that engage in ways 41 mounted on the central longitudinal members 3 and 4. This drive crosshead 36 has the drive gear 42 having a nonround bore mating in sliding engagement on the kelly bar 24. Suitable bearings, not shown, are provided for each of the gears in these crosshead housings. To rotate the auger 35 with the right hand flight clockwise to effectively screw the auger into the coal and draw the coal rearwardly, the kelly bar in Fig. 5 as read from the front of the machine rotates counterclockwise and carries the drive gear 42 in the same direction. This drive gear intermeshes with the intermediate gear 43 that rotates the auger gear 44 and the other intermediate gear 45 counterclockwise and the right hand auger gear 46 clockwise. Since the shafts of the gears 44 and 46 are directly coupled with the right and left auger sections 35 and 36, the latter rotate in the same direction when viewed from the front of the machine to make their screws pull the coal toward the outer side of the angered hole and away from each other.

The forward cross head 38 is preferably made integral with the interior of the stationary barrel 4'7 by .means of the spacing arms 48 and the top reinforcing webbing structure 50. The forward crosshead is preferably provided with a corresponding train of gears 51, 52, 53 and 54. The gears 51 and 54 are aligned with the gears 44 and 46 of the drive crosshead 37 and their shafts 55 and 56 are directly coupled with their respective auger sections 35 and 36. Thus, regardless of how long or how many auger units 35 and 36 are made up in a parallel string, they are tied together at the drive crosshead 37 and the forward crosshead 38 in the barrel 47 which insures equalization of power along each auger string and to each cutting head 57 and 58 mounted on the forward end of the shafts 55 and 56 and revolve in front of the barrel 47 cutting clearance therefor. The cutters 57 and 58 are shown to be larger than the bore of the guide 26 but they may be made small enough to pass therethrough. The cutters 57 and 58 are shown as two balanced arms mounted on their respective shafts with bits to cut clearance for the barrel 47. These cutters 57 and 58 may be of any desired shape and form suitable for mining the particular character of coal in which the anger is to operate. The cutters could be of the kerf type or the coal face cutting type of chipping head or modifications of either form. As shown in Figs. 1 to 4 the barrel 47 is within the guide shell or barrel 26. However, there should be ample clearance between these two members to permit the barrel to readily move longitudinally through the guide when the cutters 57 and 58 are also capable of passing through the shell 26 by reason of the fact that they are materially smaller in diameter to that shown. When the cutters are moved progressively into the coal, the barrel 47 moves out of the shell 26 and substantially fills the holes formed by the cutters and require that all of the coal pass therethrough to the conveyor sections 35 and 36. When the cutter head has progressed sufliciently far to bring the crosshead 37 close to the rear of the guide 26, the joints of the augers are broken and the crosshead 37 is retracted and a second set of auger units is mounted in place and the mining operation proceeds in the manner similar to that of .a single angering machine.

The crosshead 37 rides on the track formed by the central longitudinal members 3 and 4 and is moved forward and backward by means of the double acting jack members 60 and 61 which engage the back of the crosshead member 37 in substantial alignment with the auger members 35 and 36. These jack members 60 and 61 move the crosshead 37 along the track and thus force the angers forward while the motor 21 drives the rotary cutting heads through the angers 35 and 36. As previously stated when thecrosshead member 37 reaches the proximity of the guide member 26, it is uncoupled from the auger sections and withdrawn to permit two additional auger sections to be inserted in the machine and coupled to continue the mining operation.

As shown in Fig. 6, if two machines are employed machine 62 is drilling the opening indicated at 63 while the machine 64 is retracting the angering units from the previously drilled hole 65. Thus the machine 64 retracts and has ready the angering sections 35 and 36 just prior to the time that the crosshead 37 of the machine 62 has been retracted in readiness to receive the auger sections. In proceeding with the mining operation in this manner as shown in Fig. 6, the previously drilled hole functions as the storage for the auger members which are being used to drill the new hole. If for some reason the machine 62 is to be shut down, it is, of course, advisable to immediately withdraw all of the angers from the hole 65 by the machine 64 rather than to permit the auger units to remain in the drilled hole for any appreciable length of time. A flexible support 66 and 67 extending between the machine 62 and 64 may, of course, be increased in width if it is necessary to separate the juxtaposition of the two machines owing to the topography of the mine and the mining procedure necessary for the terrain. However, it is preferable to keep the machines as close together as possible leaving an intervening column or pillar 68 between the holes 63 and 65 which is merely adequate to support the hill without danger of the lossof the angering equipment. With a machine having a single anger, the recovery has been as great as 70 to 72 percent; however, this percentage of recovery increases with the increased number of heads on the end of the angering machine. Thus a four headed machine would provide for greater recovery than the two headed machine such as shown, although the intervening column 68 may be larger there is, of course, less columns which accounts for the increased recovery.

It is frequently desirable to guide the angering head. This may be accomplished by the structure illustrated in Fig. 7 wherein the crosshead member 37 is mounted on a swivel 70 in the center post 39 and permits limited movement of the crosshead relative to the transverse plane. This movement being effected by permitting the cylinder 61 to advance a little further than the cylinder 60. A structure of this character necessitates the use of swivel connections 71 between the piston rods of the jacks 60 and 61 and the rear of the crosshead housings 37. The drive shafts of each of the auger members are provided with universal joints as illustrated at 72 where the anger units 35 and 26 are coupled to their respective shaft members in the housings 3'7 and 38. The housing 38 is otherwise 'the same. This type of structure permits one to shift the crosshead 38 so as to change the lateral course of the cutting heads 57 and 58.

The control of the jacks 60 and 61 is illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 8 wherein a motor 73 is provided to operate the pumps 74 that draw fluid through the line 75 to the tank 76. The bypassed pressure control line 77 returns excess liquid to the tank 76 and the fluid pressure output of the pump 74 is delivered to the control valve 78 having a handle 80 which is thrown to the left to supply fluid under energy through the pipe 81 to the back of both of the cylinders 68 and 61. The opposite end of the cylinder will discharge through the normally closed control valves 82 and 83 from their lines 84 and 85 from the rod end of the cylinders 60 and 61 and thence through the return line 77 to the tank 76. The control valves 82 and 83 may be adjusted in their operation to permit one cylinder to exhaust a little faster than the other by means of the handles 87 operating against the balancing springs 88. Thus, by manipulating the han- 6' dles 87 one piston'rod is permitted to advance alittle ahead of the other, a crosshead 37 is made askew which would normally force the crosshead 38 askew and thus cause the cutters 57 and 58 to drill either right or left depending upon which control valve is caused to function.

When the lever 80 of the control valve 78 is shoved in the opposite direction, fluid is connected to the rod and both of the cylinders 60 and 61 retract the crosshead 37 and the opposite end of the cylinders is discharged through the line 77 to the tank 76. Thus, by the use of this arrangement, one can laterally steer an angering mining machine having a plurality of cutting heads. The limit in the steering is, of course, determined by the limit of interference between overlapping auger members 35 and 36. However, if these auger members are not permitted to overlap each other, the barrel 47 would be as shown in Fig. 7 and the cutting heads would chip out a very thin cusp between the two holes angered and at the same time permit a greater twisting action of the forward crosshead 38 because there is less interference between the two auger strings.

Thus enabling one to control the auger through the manipulation of the jack 60 and 61.

Pressure sensitive'teeth on the auger heads may be employed to indicate the character of coal seam necessitating the guiding of the cutting head as it progresses through the coal through the use of an electronic screen and the degree of turning of the crosshead 37 and 38 which represent a parallelogram can be accurately measured by indicating the angle and degrees of the swivel position of the crosshead 37 in the frame of the machine.

It will be apparent from the foregoing disclosure that the use of two or more pairs of anger strings of opposite hands that are rotated in opposite directions, provides an inherent stability of the machine as it mines coal deep in the hill and a considerable distance from the power source. The use of pairs of angers of opposite hand being rotated in opposite directions prevents the cutting members from deviating laterally in one direction or the other due to the distribution of cutting thrusts and also prevents what is known as rifling which was experienced in the early mine boring art wherein the rotary cutting mechanism tended to turn on its own axis as it proceeded through the coal. Thus the use of pairs of angers of opposite hand avoids suc-h tendencies, and

provides an important improvement supporting this invention.

I claim:

1. A multiple auger mining machine for producing coal and having a motor carried by a base frame with connected belly plates and supporting a multiheaded auger characterized by a nonrotary barrel movable with the angers, and having an opening for each auger, said openings connected with each other, a gearbox extending across and fixed in the upper portion of said barrel openings, a rotary coupling mounted in said gearbox at each auger position, a mining head connected to the front of each coupling, an anger section connected to the back of each coupling, a traveling gearbox supported from said base frame and carrying a rotary coupling for each auger, drive timing means in each gearbox connecting said rotary couplings, and drive means from said motor to the drive timing means in said traveling gearbox to rotate said auger sections.

2. A multiple auger mining machine for producing coal and having a motor carried by said base frame with connected auger belly plates and supporting a multiheaded auger, characterized by at least a pair of parallel auger strings, separate drive timing means connecting said parallel angers at their front ends and at their rear ends, a plurality of overlapping mining heads connected in front of said front drive timing means to be driven by said parallel auger means and opening in the coal face, and drive means from said motor to said rear drive timing means.

3. A multiple auger mining machine for producing coal 'an'dhaving a motor carried by a base frame with connected auger belly plates and supporting a multihead auger, characterized by at least a pair of parallel auger strings having drive timing means connected at one end to said motor, and timing means interconnecting said augers adjacent their heads, the outer auger on one side having a left hand flight and the outer auger on the other side having a right hand flight to bring the coal out of the hole on opposite sides of said augers.

4. The multiple auger mining machine of claim 3 characterized by said angers being out of phase with each other and adjacent augers overlapping each other.

5. An auger mining machine having a plurality of parallel auger strings each carrying a cutter head at its outer end and each extending from a drive means connected to a rotary motor mounted on a base frame, characteirized in that said plurality of parallel auger strings include left and right hand auger strings rotated in opposite directions to mine when moved forward and draw the mined material from the bored hole and timing gears interconnecting said right and left hand auger string adjacent their cutting heads.

6. The auger mining machine of claim 5 characterized in that said drive means to said plurality of parallel auger strings includes spaced rotary shafts in a gearbox connected to operate in timed relation, said gearbox movable along the base frame relative to said motor to feed the cutter heads into the mining face.

7. The auger mining machine of claim 5 characterized in that said plurality of parallel auger strings are connected together at their inner ends and outer ends inwardly adjacent said cutter heads by swivel mounted bearing means.

8. An auger mining machine having a plurality of parallel auger strings each carrying a cutter head at its outer end and extending from a drive connected to a rotary motor mounted on a base frame, characterized in that said plurality of parallel auger strings include left and right hand auger strings mounted in overlapped relation to each other to rotate in opposite directions without interference, and timing gear means to interconnect and bearing means to space said auger strings at both ends, one at the motor drive end and the other behind the cutter heads.

9. The auger mining machine of claim 8 characterized in that said timing gear means includes a gearbox with interconnected auger couplings carried by said bearing means at the drive end, said couplings rotatably connected to rotate the auger strings, and power means to move said gearbox back and forth on said base frame to feed and Withdraw the rotary augers.

10. The auger mining machine of claim 9 characterized in that said gearbox moves relative to said rotary motor, and said drive also includes a nonround bar rotatably supported from said base frame and connected to be driven by said rotary motor, said bar having a sliding connection with said rotatably connected couplings to rotate said auger strings as the gearbox is moved to feed said auger strings forward. V

11. The auger mining machine of claim 10 characterized by a guide at the front of said base frame to support said auger strings,'a bearing on said guide to support the outer end of said bar, and means to move said guide longitudinally of and relative to said frame while supporting the outer end of said bar.

12. An auger mining machine having a plurality of rotatable and axially movable parallel auger strings each having a cutter head at its outer end and extending from a drive connected to a rotary motor mounted on a base frame, characterized by a guide in the form of a cylinder for each auger string, each cylinder connected together and mounted on the front of said base frame, the space in each guide cylinder open to its adjacent cylirid'e'rto form a common joined space, a nonrotary barrel structure having a cylinder for each auger string and connected together, the space in each barrel cylinder open to its adjacent cylinder to form a common joined space, a combined bearing and gearbox extending across said common space of said barrel to interconnect said parallel auger strings and provide a bearing to support the outer end of each auger string with its cutter head there beyond, said joined barrel cylinders engaging the augered hole to aid in guiding the cutter heads.

13. An auger mining machine having a plurality of rotatable and axially movable parallel auger strings each having a cutter head at its outer end and extending from a drive connected to a rotary motor mounted on a base frame, characterized by an anger shaft for each auger string, a transverse bearing means laterally supporting said auger shafts for each auger string at the outer end of the latter, a universal joint between each auger string and said auger shafts in said bearing means, a gearbox having a vertical pivot slidably mounted on said base frame and having a universal joint connecting the rear end of each auger string to said gearbox, and independently operated push means connected to said gearbox on opposite sides of said vertical pivot to feed the rotary augers forward, and a control to actuate one push means ahead of the other to make said gearbox and transverse bearing means askew to laterally guide said auger strings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

